Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, has announced £31m of government funding to set up social impact bonds to help disadvantaged young people. Social impact bonds are financing mechanisms that seek non-government investment for social interventions. If the interventions are successful, the government commits to repaying and rewarding the investors.
Clegg said yesterday that the government would provide the funding for new social impact bonds through two programmes aimed at helping 14 to 24-year-olds improve their employment prospects.
The Youth Engagement Fund, which will receive £16m of funding, is designed to support up to 18,000 young people in more than 100 schools in England to improve their skills and employability. The £15m Fair Chance Fund has been set up to move more than 2,000 homeless young people into sustainable accommodation, and help them get into employment, education or training over the next three years.
The Cabinet Office said that the type of schemes that would be funded by the cross-departmental programmes were likely to include those that reduced long-term dependency on benefits, reduced the risk of offending, or helped homeless young people find sustainable accommodation.
